After missing the final seven games of the regular season, Logan Thompson has been one of the Capitals’ biggest assets to start the playoffs.
Thompson put up another stellar performance in Game 2 against the Montreal Canadiens, keeping the Caps afloat to secure a 2-0 series lead. With a Game 1 win already under his belt, Thompson played an even bigger role on Wednesday night, making 25 saves on 26 shots in the 3-1 win.
“He’s been huge for us all season, and tonight’s another showcase of what he’s done for us this year,” Pierre-Luc Dubois said postgame. “We’re all really happy to have him back there. He’s played a lot of good games for us this year and he’s going to play a lot of good games going forward.”
Although Thompson’s night started sour on Wednesday, with Christian Dvorak sneaking the puck over his pads just 1:16 into the game, he was quick to stop the bleeding. Just seconds later, he made a save on Emil Heineman to prevent the Canadiens from doubling their lead and held fast for the remainder of the game.
Thompson was particularly crucial in the third period as Washington struggled to hold onto a 2-1 lead. After largely dominating play for the first 40 minutes, the Capitals looked far more mortal in the final frame, scrambling once again when the Habs attempted to repeat their Game 1 success to tie the game in regulation.
But while the Capitals found it difficult to control play, Thompson shone, stopping all 14 shots he faced in the third.
“I thought he was the difference tonight, in the third,” said head coach Spencer Carbery.
Dylan Strome remarked that Thompson “shut the door when we needed it most,” not only delivering solid goaltending but complementing rest of the team when they faltered. Asked about the difference between the end of Game 1, where Montreal scored twice in the final minutes to force overtime, and the end of Game 2, he pointed to Thompson as the biggest factor.
“LT,” he said. “I thought he was unbelievable, especially in the last five minutes. We were obviously just hanging on there.”
Thompson, who has shown a flair for the dramatic on the ice, started his best show just after the midway mark of the third period, though the inciting incident proved not to be his doing at all. He appeared to make a sprawling save on Jake Evans in a moment seemingly certain to make highlight reels, but a closer look revealed the puck had hit the post and not Thompson’s glove.
While Ryan Leonard said his “jaw hit the floor” upon first seeing the play, Thompson took a more self-deprecating approach when talking about the shot.
“I didn’t save it,” he said with a grin and a chuckle. “It went off the post. I think I almost knocked it in. Those are the plays I’ll take any day of the week, when they’re not going in the back of the net.”
Save or not, the moment seemed to galvanize both Thompson and the fans at Capital One Arena. He made several more flashy plays in the following minutes, stopping a breakaway chance from Josh Anderson and making an outstretched glove save on Evans.
Asked what went through his head when he saw Thompson make those key stops, Dubois had an easy answer.
“Oh God,” he responded.
The flurry of shots may have put Caps fans — and players — on edge, but they made Thompson even more confident in the crease.
“It definitely gets you back in the game and it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s a back-and-forth game. Those are the type of games you dream of playing in as a kid. It went our way tonight.”
Thompson’s impact reaches beyond individual dramatic play, however. Dubois pointed to the more subtle elements of his game as just as important to his overall success.
“Everybody’s going to remember the one, two big saves, but there’s some huge ones, rebound control, that kind of stuff,” Dubois said. “I’m not a goalie expert, but it’s fun to see him back there.”
From Thompson’s recent performance, you could hardly tell that he spent over two weeks out of the lineup earlier this month. He suffered an upper-body injury late in the regular season, taking a puck to the mask against the Carolina Hurricanes on April 2, and did not play again in the regular season.
An hour before Game 1, the Capitals still wouldn’t confirm who would start in net. Two days later, Thompson looks like he never left it.
“Being able to jump right back into and play your best hockey is a credit to him,” said Carbery, who noted he wasn’t surprised to see Thompson thrive upon his return.
Not only did Thompson bounce back, he came back better than ever, snapping out of a relative cold streak that saw him post an .877 save percentage and a 3.33 goals-against average in his last 15 games before the injury.
Through two games of the playoff, Thompson has posted a .951 save percentage — ranking behind only the Carolina Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen for the playoff lead — and has allowed just three goals.
Carbery compared Thompson’s postseason performance not to his play late in the regular season, but to the phenomenal early-season play that helped him earn a six-year extension with the Caps in late January.
“When you watched LT tonight, that was the LT that we saw for — call it 40 games or whatever he was playing at the beginning of the year — where you could feel the confidence,” Carbery said. “You could feel the building with the energy with each save. It felt like he just got bigger and bigger and bigger. He was tested.”
Carbery later spoke to Thompson’s drive to step in in big moments, a desire that helped bring him to the Capitals in the first place.
“The guy’s a gamer, man,” Carbery said. “These games, this is where he wants to play. He wanted to play in the playoffs. He said: ‘I’m ready to go. I want to be in the net in Game 1.’”
Nearly a year ago, Thompson’s dissatisfaction with the Vegas Golden Knights led him to ask for a trade after he’d struggled to secure a starting position with the team. He’d made his playoff debut that spring, playing four games against the Dallas Stars in the first round before head coach Bruce Cassidy turned to Aiden Hill for the remainder of the series.
The experience left Thompson frustrated and eager for another chance to prove himself. A year later and on the other side of the country, Thompson is now doing just that.
“I got a taste of (the playoffs) last year,” he said. “It didn’t end the way I wanted it to. To get another chance at it, I’m hungry and thankful for this opportunity. Like I said all year, just thankful to the Washington Capitals to take me in and let me play.”
